Those that follow this site know that I'm a volunteer instructor for the Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course down here in Orange County. I run Kaweah Group which is one of three groups in the area and so my schedule tends to be dominated by the class in the January to April timeframe.

The class began on January 22nd and we have had three of the ten Tuesday night classroom sessions so far but we'd yet to actually get outside with the new crop of students. That all changed this weekend with a full day hike excursion to Sierra Peak.

We'd originally planned on Mount Wilson from Sierra Madre but the seemingly endless series of storms we've been experiencing this year resulted in temperatures in the 30s, high winds, and 3-5 ft of snow up top. That the prospect of a steep trail with a big drop off to the side less than ideal so we ended up changing at the last minute.

So off we went to Sierra Peak with a forecast of temperatures in the high 40s, high winds, and rain pretty much throughout the day.

February 10th, 2019

Sierra Peak (3,045')
15 miles, 3,000'

[Pics] [Caltopo] [Map]

Each year the 10 week Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course builds up to a three day two night winter backpack outing into the Sierra Nevada.  And each year the staff nervously watch the snow forecast hoping we don't have a repeat of 2015 where we barely had enough snow to set up tents on.

This year it looked grim until right before the snow travel outing at which point a series of storms starting hitting both the local mountains and the Sierra.  By the week before snow camp we knew we were in for something memorable.


Even if the weather fizzled (which it didn't) this was looking to be the coldest snow camp in years!

March 16th to 18th, 2018

[Pics] [Map]

Joshua Tree is the second of four outings that make up the Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course.  Two weeks ago everyone joined us for a 15 mile -ish dayhike and now we had an entire weekend bus trip out to Indian Cove to focus on rock scrambling skills and navigation!

And since we're Kaweah Group (one of the three groups in the Orange County area of WTC) we like to throw a theme into the mix for our summit shot and potluck.  Themes are suggested and voted on by the class and previous years have run the gamut from simple to elaborate.  This year the winner was Medical Misadventure beating out Business Casual Murder Clowns by a very small margin.  The result is what you see above!

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here. More posts by me about WTC can be found here.

February 17th & 18th, 2018

[Pics] [CalTopo]

Past the break is a very long quasi chronological sequence of photos following the 2017 Wilderness Travel Course in Orange County with most being specific to Kaweah Group led by myself and Paul Warren along with a staff of extremely hard working volunteers.

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here. More posts on WTC by me can be found here.

This was the sixth year since we launched Kaweah Group as the third group in the Orange County section of the Wilderness Travel Course.  After having such a strong group in 2016 this year's had a lot to live up to.   Fortunately we ended up with an amazing group of people who blew us away the very first night with how much fun we were having and followed that up with one of the most active years on record.

This was also the end of an era as it was the last year volunteering for a good number of the staff including long time Whitney Group leaders Edd Ruskowitz and John Cyran and Kaweah staffers and personal friends Paul Warren and Laurent Hoffman.

Due to this 2018 will see Modjeska Group and Whitney Group being retired and the launch of two brand new ones named Olancha and Ritter.  And of course the concentrated awesomeness that is Kaweah will continue.

This was the second weekend outing of the 10 week Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course (aka WTC).  Previously the group had joined us for a long dayhike designed to give everyone an idea of the fitness level required to complete course and now we would be spending the weekend scrambling around on rocks in Joshua Tree and practicing navigation using compasses and topo maps.

And since we're Kaweah Group (one of the three groups in the Orange County area of WTC) we like to throw a theme into the mix for our summit shot and potluck.  Themes are suggested and voted on by the class and previous years have run the gamut from simple to elaborate and we carry the costumes with us to the summit of the peak.  This year the winner was a combined theme of enchanted forest / animals the result of which you can see above.

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here. More posts on WTC by me can be found here.

February 11th & 12th, 2017

Peak 4377 (4,377')

[Pics] [Map]

Past the break is a very long quasi chronological sequence of photos following the 2016 Wilderness Travel Course in Orange County with most being specific to Kaweah Group led by myself and Paul Warren along with a staff of extremely hard working volunteers.

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here.  More posts on WTC by me can be found here.

This was the fifth year since we started Kaweah Group and the students this year were some of the strongest and most active we've ever had.  The best years are the ones where you can feel the group starting to gel early on and this year they were all planning hikes and other get togethers on top of coming along on any trips, paddles, or other activities we threw at them.  It made all the classes and outings a joy to participate in and the post class summer trip season one of our most active.

We also had more snow than last year's abysmal showing which is hopefully a trend which will continue.

Past the break is a very long quasi chronological sequence of photos following the 2015 Wilderness Travel Course in Orange County with most being specific to Kaweah Group led by myself and Paul Warren along with a staff of extremely hard working volunteers.

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here.  More posts by me can be found here.

This was the 4th year since we split off from the Modjeska Group and formed Kaweah.  This also had the distinction of being the worst year for snow at snow camp since I took the course back in 2008.  This year for the first time most people were camped on dirt instead of snow.  Despite this we managed a good snowshoe race, took advantage of the easy travel to back a mini peak on the second day, and all around had a lot of fun with a lot of great people.

This was also the second and final year we would hold Orange County at the Santiago Canyon College before moving to the Murray Center in 2016.

Past the break is a very long quasi-chronological sequence of photos following the 2014 Wilderness Travel Course in Orange County with most being specific to Kaweah Group led this year by myself and James Montross along with a staff of extremely hard working volunteers.

For more information on what WTC is and how to take the course see the official site here.  More posts about it by me can be found here.

This was the 3rd year since we started Kaweah Group which is the third currently in Orange County.

Yutings themes this year were Hippies: Dirty Or Otherwise for Joshua Tree and Beach Party for Snow Camp.  Joshua Tree in particular people really went all out resulting in the first time I had to censor a summit shot followed by a six and a half hour fireside happy hour.  We also had minor injuries on every outing but all were just freak occurrences.  Tripping, twisted ankles, knees turned out of nowhere while putting on a snowshoe.

This was the first of two years where we held the class at Santiago College after having to leave the Red Hill Church location due to them not having space for us.  

It's been a fun start to the year with the occasional desert trip snuck in between the always awesome 10 week Wilderness Travel Course and the spring session of the Advanced Mountaineering Program but at long bloody last it's time to kick off the Sierra season.

This particular weekend along with the Alabama Hills rock climbing trip a few weeks back were planned as private outings to give the WTC students of Kaweah group the opportunity to learn some more advanced skills beyond what we teach in the course.  (WTC used to be called BMTC and included rock climbing and ice axe and crampons but these days we are limited to rock scrambling and winter backpacking)

The original plan had been more along the lines of a car camp with a day of ice axe and crampon practice followed by a easier but non trivial peak climb to put the new skills to use.  Unfortunately this seasons rather apathetic snow levels meant that there wasn't much that was easily accessible.  So instead we changed it to a backpack with the plan of hopefully finding some decent snow up high.

After some last minute debate I settled on Julius Caesar out of Pine Creek.  It had spectacular views, the approach was a trailhead I'd never used before, and at 13,220 ft I figured we'd probably be able to manage some amount of snow.

May 18th & 19th, 2013

Mount Julius Caesar (13,200')

[Pics] [Map]

What: WTC Joshua Tree Rock Scrambling & Navigation
When: February 9th & 10th, 2013
Where: Indian Cove Campground, Joshua Tree
Instructors: Matthew Hengst, James Montross, Laurent Hoffman, Paul Warren, Jeff Atijera, Wendy Miller
Pictures: Matt's Flickr

January through April is the season where myself and many other regulars on my peakbagging trips wander in from the wilderness, start showering regularly again, and act as volunteer instructors for the Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course.